Joe Straker

Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence

The facilities are excellent, they have everything that I would ever need

Loughborough was very highly rated for career prospects and student experience, and for me, those are the two most important things a university can offer.

I’ve always been fascinated with how software and hardware interact to create the apps and devices we use in our daily lives. I’ve wanted to learn how to those devices function and even be able to make some of those apps or games myself.

I did come to an open day before applying. It did influence my decision in that I felt that I wanted to go to Loughborough before the open day, but the open day made me 100% positive that I wanted to be there. Just the feeling of being on campus around so many other people all enjoying their time here was something that sealed my decision to go to Loughborough.

I really enjoy the social life and campus at Loughborough, as everyone’s so nice and I’ve been able to get involved in a variety of new things, as well as making new friends. I went from not being too sociable before coming here, to getting to know quite a few people of different backgrounds, different interests, different courses, from all over the university, and that’s one of my favourite things about Loughborough.

I really enjoy doing labs, as these allow us to put our learning in action and see what we’ve learnt in a tangible way. We’ve been able to create web pages, product management systems, databases and more.

Make the most of your time, go to lectures, engage with your lecturers, ask for help if you’re struggling and don’t fall behind too much. Some of the modules can get really tough, but just remember that you can always ask lecturers and fellow course mates for help.

The facilities are excellent, they have everything that I would ever need, PCs with Linux, Windows, MacOS, as well as a lot of study spaces that I can use whenever I want.

My plans for the future are to see where it leads. I have a couple roads ahead of me into game development or software engineering, so I’m going to take it one step at a time.